Open Thread

Open Thread

Mark Noonan38 Comments

Not one Democrat Presidential candidate has condemned the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel. Only two Democrat Senators have condemned the attacks (Rosen D-NV and Sinema D-AZ: and tip of the hat to both of them). The Democrats have made the choice that joining up with Islamists is a better future than defending Jews.

Side note: this conflict goes on until one side wins, and the other loses. The Palestinian leadership – which makes its money off of war and suffering – will not quit until forced to quit. Only the massive application of firepower upon the Palestinians until they all come out, hands in the air, will end this.

Feminists and Conservatives are joining forces against the misbegotten “Equality Act”:

The Equality Act just passed the House Judiciary Committee last week, and it threatens to erase protections for women — protections that benefit women and society as a whole. Legislative and policy “reforms” proposed in this dangerous bill will lead to blatant violations of our safety, privacy, and dignity.

Under this bill, men and boys will take away women’s small business grants and hard-won spots on sports teams; they will be allowed to live in women’s domestic violence shelters and use our locker rooms. And united as women, we are just not going to stand for it.

To illustrate their case, they note the story of a man who identifies as a woman being seen naked in the women’s sauna (by teenaged girls): when the incident was reported the power of the State was brought forth to force everyone to apologize to the guy exposing himself to little girls. It is good that there can be a united fight against pure insanity – but Feminists should think a bit deeper into this. It is the tearing down of societal norms – including the norms which say that certain tasks are for men, others for women – which lead us here. As far as allowing anyone – of any condition – to do whatever their talents allow, no one can have any complaint. But thinking that a woman can be a successful infantryman is just as absurd as thinking a man who identifies as a woman should be allowed to parade around the girls locker room. Men and women are different; they bring in many cases entirely different things to the table; it is the cooperation of the feminine and the masculine, as distinct things, which makes humanity human.

The Daily Caller has a story about how the money (about $100 million) provided to Flint, MI to remediate it’s water issue is being relentlessly misused – the most egregious thing, in my view, is the awarding of high priced contracts to a company with no experience in the work, while more experienced companies were denied contracts. It is a grift: the people who run Flint – ie, the criminally negligent people who created the water crisis – don’t give a damn about the people, and are merely using the bonanza of government dollars to line their own pockets. All of these are Democrats – and all of them will be “re-elected” or, at least, replaced with people who are just like they are. We need to start thinking about what to do – consistent with our federal values – about States and cities which are so badly misgoverned that we can’t rely on sane policy being pursued.

Trump’s counsel has sent a letter to AG Barr ripping the Mueller report pretty hard – on the grounds that Mueller didn’t follow the special counsel rules in writing his final report. I had noted that Mueller would make his report as lurid as he could, and he did. What Democrats are latching on to right now is Mueller’s statement that he couldn’t conclusively prove that Trump didn’t break the law. But Mueller’s job wasn’t to say one way or the other about that – his job was to see if there was a crime, and if there was, then to prosecute it. As he’s not prosecuting Trump or any Trump associate for collusion or obstruction of justice related to the 2016 campaign, Trump has been exonerated. Mueller deliberately muddied that fact.

A pro-baby killing Pennsylvania Democrat is proving himself to be just about as much an a**hole as you’d think.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan38 Comments

The New York Times is worried that the revelation that the Obama Administration spied on Trump will lend credence to Trump’s claim that the Obama Administration spied on him.

The MSM – all at once and all together – decided that Louis Farrakhan is a far right person. It was when Farrakhan got banned by Facebook along with some other people, some of whom were actually of the right. You might recall the time the MSM labelled George Wallace a Republican. So, like that; but, also, different. A very large number of major MSM outfits called Farrakhan far right…almost as if there was a memo that went out and the MSM just transcribed it as news.

A ten month old child died when the raft she was crossing the Rio Grande on tipped over. This is 100% of the fault of American liberals who encourage people to make these dangerous journeys.

1938 video of Civil War veterans.

We’re going to need a bigger Navy. A lot bigger. I think Trump instinctively understands this, but I don’t see any admiral out there ringing the alarm bell and really pushing a naval buildup. We need a Jacky Fisher.

California High School is thinking about removing a picture of George Washington because it is too traumatic for some students. The name of the school? George Washington High School.

Yeah, our government is still spying on you.

President Trump proposes to give the Border Patrol power to decide asylum cases on their own. Makes sense: make a fast judgement on their asylum status. If they’ve got a good case, let them stay…if not, back home they go.

Trump’s magic wand at work again as US Steel gets ready to invest a billion dollars in a new Pittsburgh steel plant.

Liberal Democrat justifies abortion by suggesting if we don’t kill them in the womb, we’ll just have to kill them when they are adults.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan25 Comments

While everything in our history has been disparaged, the fight against Nazism has been, so far, spared by the left. This is now being “corrected”, with the Washington Post noting that while the Allied leaders were anti-Nazi, they weren’t anti-racist. The left will erase every last bit of our history if we give them the chance.

Related: Professor says that whiteness is terrorism.

A radicalized Methodist plotted a terrorist attack in California. Oh wait: scratch that – it was a radicalized Muslim.

On this day in history, Saigon fell to the Communists. Never has any nation betrayed another as badly as we betrayed the Republic of Vietnam.

Interesting article on the Christian origins of Islam. Of course, people who know have always seen Islam as a Christian heresy. Mohammed apparently spent a lot of time in then-Christian Syria and he would have been surrounded there by a Christian society which hotly disputed just about every aspect of Christianity. No surprise that he picked up a version of it which allowed him to place himself at the head of the enterprise – he just had to deny the divinity of Christ and he was off to the races.

Hoaxers falsely accused Peter Buttigieg of sexual assault. Thing is, there was as much evidence against Buttigieg as there was against Kavanaugh. Now, note the difference: Kavanaugh was slandered by the national media in an orgy of hatred, none of which has been retracted or apologized for (indeed, they are giving Kavanaugh’s lying accuser awards), while it took just a few hours for the same national media to debunk the accusations against Buttigieg.

Brazil moves decidedly away from the left. This is a good thing. Brazil (population 208 million, 3.2 million square miles of territory) should be a Great Power nearly on par with the United States. If Brazil really can navigate away from the authortarian leftism which has plauged Latin America for a century, it would be great for Brazil and the world.

Its Hard to Write on One Topic Open Thread

Mark Noonan17 Comments

I honestly keep trying to find a subject to write at length about, but I usually find ten. So, lots of open threads. And today is no different:

A judge cut loose an illegal immigrant, preventing that illegal from being arrested by ICE. The judge has now been indicted:

This is huge — a lunatic hack state judge is indicted and charged with cutting loose a twice-deported Dominican illegal immigrant arrested with drugs after throwing an ICE agent out of her courtroom so that the criminal could escape.

For what appears to be the first time, someone in a “sanctuary” jurisdiction has to answer for the coddling of these illegal immigrants who are perpetrating a massive tidal wave of crime on the law-abiding, taxpaying citizens of the United States

We need more of this – if the Democrats want to go all neo-Confederate about federal laws, then we’ll have to become increasingly Shermanesque in dealing with them.

Joe Biden announced for President – third time will not be the charm. Naturally, he started out by repeating the “fine people on both sides” lie the Democrats have peddled about the Charlottsville incident. Don’t think any liberal will complain about the lie: they believe it. I’ve got a friend who is convinced he heard Trump, live, say that the “fine people” included the neo-Nazis. A cursory reading of the transcript shows he didn’t…but once the Democrats decide on a lie, they’ll never move away from it. In the end, Trump won’t beat Biden because there’s no way the Democrats will permit an old, straight white man to be their nominee in 2020.

We found Biden’s campaign song.

A German parenting magazine opines that blonde, happy families are evil incarnate. You know, I’ve run across the “blood and soil” neo-Nazi nitwits on a regular basis on social media: this is exactly the red meat they need to convince people to join them. If you want to convince such people that there isn’t a war on white people then just maybe you shouldn’t have a war on white people. Just spitballin’ here.

We’re used to this – but here’s how the MSM took the Trump Administration’s efforts to protect women in war zones and turned it into a “Trump wants women raped” story. They do this all the time – take a story and simply make up an anti-Trump angle, no matter how divorced from reality. This is why I say that any story in the MSM about politics must be presumed to be a lie until confirmed by a non-MSM source. (HT: Ace)

From RSM: Guy gets arrested for assaulting his wife. SJW do-gooder group bails guy out. Guy goes home and murders his wife. To be fair, I do understand the desire to be merciful: it is crucial to a functioning society that we have a gigantic amount of mercy towards those who transgress. Partially because mercy, as such, is good but, also, because the authorities do make mistakes. But, everyone makes mistakes. And if a guy is in jail under serious charges, its probably not wise to rush in and spring him from jail. The job of criminal justice reformers is not to get people out of jail, but to ensure that the accused receive justice – if we are doing justice, then there’s no reason for anyone to complain.

Powerline on how the left is using teaching history to, well, ensure that the kids learn no history, at all.

Spring Day, Will be in the Pool Open Thread

Mark Noonan19 Comments

Got in the pool yesterday, actually: a little chilly, but not bad. Its going above 90 out here today, so expect and increasingly tan Mark in the coming days.

Cher gets a little red-pilled over the Bernie plan to allow imprisoned felons to vote. Perhaps there is a level of stupid so bad that even the most dyed-in-the-wool liberals will wake up? I think 2020 will test this theory.

Harris was also a bit on board with Bernie’s “Let the Boston Bomber Vote” program, until, I guess, her aides and pollsters went “are you f***ing nuts!”. She’s backing down a bit from it – but, don’t believe her: the liberals really do believe jailed murderers should vote, because they’ll likely all vote Democrat. Harris is just beating a tactical retreat.

The Citizenship Question will go before the Supreme Court and rumors are the Conservative majority will back Trump – which, to me, is a no-brainer: there’s no valid reason not to have such a question on the census. It is a violation of my rights as a citizen of the United States that some States get more House representation based upon people who aren’t even supposed to be in the country. I’d also like to look into the validity of someone who holds a House seat where the number of citizen voters is significantly smaller than the average number of citizen voters per district. To me, such a person cannot hold a House seat as no proper election occurred given our one man, one vote requirement for such things.

Latinos are doing very well under Trump – by some measures, better than they’ve ever done. How will this play in 2020? Don’t know. But if Trump can crack 40% of the Latino vote, it’ll be a blowout for him.

Rep. Omar (D-West Somalia) back in 2017 essentially called the American soldiers of “Black Hawk Down” fame, terrorists. A veteran of that fight responds. You have to think about this: American blood was shed to save Omar’s life and after this and coming to America and now living a life that no Somali could ever dream of in Somalia, she’s calling the men who made it all possible terrorists. I do doubt the validity of her oath of citizenship.

RSM notes a feminist coffee shop in Australia started charging men 18% more than women…and for some bizarre reason, the place is now going out of business.

John Nolte notes 51 deliberate, malicious lies the MSM told you about Trump-Russia.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan33 Comments

Senator Romney (R, D; MA, UT…whatever and wherever, as long as I get to be in power) took a dump on President Trump as did famed Never Trumper David French. Oddly, their statements are alike in that they both claim the Mueller Report shows a horrible, lying, corrupt Trump (who didn’t do anything illegal) and who must now be opposed. A lot of people go on like that – which shows that it was clearly coordinated. The plan was clearly that Mueller would find something damaging and people like Romney and French were supposed to be part of a cascade of voices moving Trump towards resignation. It didn’t work out because of that pesky, little detail of Trump not doing anything wrong…but I guess once you’re bought, you stay bought: the people who pay for the Romneys and Frenches want this, so they get it.

Some Christian churches in Sri Lanka were blown to pieces on Easter – and just as you expected, no one who waxed eloquent over the attack on a Mosque in New Zealand is pointing out the specific, anti-Christian aspect of the attack. No one is wearing a crucifix in solidarity; no one offering up a Hail Mary. In fact, most of the people on the left saying anything about it stay away from even mentioning a Christian element. Christians are, by far, the most persecuted people in the world – and we pray for those who do evil to us…but even so, be nice if some of these cowards in the global elite would at least acknowledge what is happening.

Along with vicious attacks, the other thing we Christians expect on Easter is opinion pieces from so-called Christians which deny key aspects of the faith. I ran across one of these – you can read it if you like, but if you’ve ever read one of them, you’ve read them all. Each of them is just mindless, sophomoric drivel. But it occurred to me: why bother? I mean, its ok (in the sense that you are free to do so) to not believe that Christ’s death on the cross redeemed the world. It is ok to deny that we are in need of washing in miraculous waters. It is ok to deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Every Muslim, Jew, Hindu and Atheist in the world does just that…but, they also don’t try to pretend to be Christian while doing it. Why do these nitwits do it? Are they still, every so slightly, open to repentance, or are they mere emissaries of the enemy?

Victor Davis Hanson interviewed regarding the anti-Trump coup attempt.

Don Surber: keep fighting. He’s right. We can be magnanimous in victory once we are entirely victorious. Until the left is utterly destroyed, we can’t let up for a moment.

Actress Emma Thompson burns through three tonnes of carbon to save the planet. From you.

Pre-Mueller-Mageddon Open Thread

Mark Noonan39 Comments

Tomorrow is The Day of all Days: the Mueller Report gets released. Whole thing is a waste of time, of course, but that won’t stop Democrats. If they are at a loss, they’ll just bald-faced lie and make up stuff about it. I think, though, that the pivot they’ll revolve around is whatever is redacted – they’ll assure their suckers viewers that in those areas is the proof that Trump is a Russian stooge. What I’m hoping for is that as we ring down the curtain on Mueller, Barr starts to raise the curtain on a general investigation into government corruption.

Robert O’Rourke (D-Never Be Caught Dead in Texas Again After This) says that he doesn’t give to charity because he gives himself to us. Seriously: I’m not kidding. That’s what he’s asserting. And the Democrats claim that Trump is a narcissist.

Jazz Shaw has an interesting bit on the UAW’s continuing efforts to unionize the VW plant in Chattanooga. It’ll probably fall flat: but, I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t time for us on the right to become Unionists? What I mean is that there is a real need for worker unions – trouble is, the worker unions we have these days mostly represent government employees and are the merest tools of the Democrat party. But suppose we started up a union which represents only private sector employees and remains strictly non-partisan while pushing for various worker protections? Think about it: we’re all starting to feel a grip of fear that one unguarded comment on social media could get us fired; might be nice to have union protection against that. So, too, might the cubicle workers (mostly customer service of various types) like some protections against stupidly absurd work schedules (serious, guys: I know whereof I speak…some times they have these poor people working mornings one day, evenings the next and then take their two days off and split them up)? Might also be nice to have unions which work against government regulations which are designed to restrain trade. We should ponder this.

RSM wonders if Soros is funding Democrat anti-Semitism.

Trump son-in-law Kushner is apparently working on a Middle East peace deal to be unveiled later this year – naturally, the Palestinian leadership is opposed before the plan it is even presented. What people won’t admit – because they are cowards – is that the PA is a mafia-like organization and if they made peace, there’d be no place for the current mafia bosses. It doesn’t matter that the Palestinians suffer under poverty and corruption. It certainly doesn’t matter that a few Israelis are killed by the guys in Gaza (matters even less that Palestinians are killed in response). All that matters is that the mafia bosses continue to live well and siphon off foreign aid money to their Swiss bank accounts. Until people confront this fact and kill the Palestinian leaders, there will be no peace.

Gotta love the Poles – they propose to name a new, American military base in Poland, “Fort Trump”. Of all the Europeans, the Poles are about the only ones worth an American’s attention…though the Czech’s and the Balt’s are ok.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan4 Comments

The Notre Dame fire has revealed an intense level of hatred among the global left for the West. We knew it was there, but when you see the some on the left cheering a burning church, you know you’ve got a problem. They hate us and want us gone – and they are allying with the most vicious parts of Jihadist Islam. We’re in for some bad times.

Its pretty much a given that the Obama Administration spied on President Trump – the only question remaining is, who ordered it? Does it go all the way up to Obama? It could: it would take a really gutsy subordinate to order such a thing without the President’s knowledge.

Bill Weld (R But Really D-MA) is going to challenge Trump in the GOP primary. Not a single person on Earth, including Weld, knows why.

Jewish voters are upset with the Democrats defense of anti-Semites. I look at it like this: if you’re in any way a Jew, you’re going to abandon the Democrat party. It is as simple as that – just as all real Catholics are abandoning the Democrat party. The Jews (and Catholics) who retain their Democrat registration are no more than nominally part of their religion. You can’t be in a party which rejects everything you believe in.

Steyn points out a rather large SJW flaw.

Valerie Jarrett wrote a book which sucks so bad she had to manipulate sales to show up on the best seller lists. My view: I bet the manipulation was done with the knowledge of the list makers. No way in heck will the Progressives allow someone like Jarrett to fail – she’s all they want: a mean spirited, anti-American creep. As an aside, Matt and I – still making money off Worst nearly 3 years after it came out – wonder how many sports cars and mansions we’d own if a major publisher had picked it up back in 2016. There’s a huge amount of talent out there which doesn’t go anywhere because the people who decide are slaves to the powerful.

Open Thread

Mark Noonan20 Comments

President Trump is mulling sending all the detained illegals to the Sanctuary Cities. Naturally, our liberals blew a gasket when they heard that! But, that’s because they’re racists and only want illegals around to cut grass and clean up…they don’t want they actually around. But I think President Trump did get this a little wrong – what he should do is assign all detained illegals to the top 20 income zip codes in the United States. I want immigrant tent cities in Central Park and Martha’s Vineyard. I don’t think Democrats realize just how much most people will think such a proposal merely fair.

President Trump also took Rep. Omar (D-West Somalia) to task for her downplaying the 9/11 attacks – and almost instantly, every Democrat out there was out with a statement saying that Trump was threatening Omar’s life. Which means:

1. Democrats get their party line and just recite it on que.
2. Democrats actually thought the American people would swing behind Omar over Trump attacks.

Democrats are really dumb.

Assange is back in the news. Never liked the guy. Not sure the government is on firm ground in prosecuting him, but he’s not a friend of the United States in any way, shape or form.

What to do about Nationalism? Interesting article about it at Powerline.

So, Ken Starr says his investigation indicated that Hillary’s treatment of Vince Foster triggered his suicide. Which is better than our usual thoughts that his death was a bit of Arkancide.

Cindy McCain reminds us why we didn’t like John McCain.

Miserably failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is under investigation by the Georgia State Ethics Commission. They are all grifters, these Democrats: every last one of them.

Some Random Thoughts

Mark Noonan24 Comments

The really funny thing about Feminism is that it amounts to an assertion that only things men do are of any worth. Think about it: when was the last time a Feminist spoke approvingly of being a mother? Of being someone who can actually organize a house and keep it working? Nope – all Feminists want is for women to get out there and do what men do, which reveals an overwhelming contempt for women. It just astonishes me that people don’t see this.

Got into a Twitter argument with some pacifists yesterday and I have two take-aways from it:

1. Pacifists are really, really rude.

2. I think we’ve all lost sight of what war actually is: it is the means whereby you compel someone to do something they don’t want to do. In olden days, you just had to compel the other king to bend to your will, but since 1789, war has required you to bend an entire people to your will. That takes a lot more fighting than it used to – but, in the end, if you do it properly, the war is over for good. A king, beaten, could recover and strike back…but once a people has been beaten, they don’t want a re-do.

I’m reading two books – one, a biography of Grant and another about Germany in 1945. What comes clear through both books is that a war ends, for good, when the defeated people is more ready to accept a dictated peace than continue the war. We’ve lost sight of that – since WWII, we’ve worked on the idea that there is a level of pain short of total destruction which will get a people to quit. Doesn’t work that way. The Germans retained faith in Hitler and his regime right up until Russians were raping their way through Pomerania and the Americans were blowing to pieces every town which showed even the slightest resistance. You have to crush an enemy – then the war is over, not before.

I’m really trying to think of a Democrat – announced or prospective – who can take it to Trump in 2020. Now, to be sure, whomever will have complete support from the MSM and the overall global elite…but, in the end, the candidate has to get down in the trenches and mix it up with Donald Trump. Who have they got who is that sort of street fighter? Just don’t see it.

A nation of 3 million square miles and 317 million people really should be able to do for itself. Trade is fine, but there is zero reason for us to import anything aside from rarities and luxuries from overseas. We have the resources and the skills to do anything that needs to be done cheaper and more efficiently than any foreign supplier could hope to meet. Our goal – in tax and regulatory policy – should be to encourage Americans to merely apply our skills to our resources in the best means possible. If we are finding ourselves less effective in some area, then the whole focus should be on finding out why, and correcting it.

The voting age should be returned to 21. And no one – outside of uniformed armed forces and police – should be allowed to vote if more than 50% of their income is derived from government.

We also need term limits on bureaucrats – no more than 12 years, then you go find something else to do.

Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made – after that, you have to group them into “2nd best”, “3rd best” and so on…because the “2nd best” movie ever made is The Caine Mutiny, The Searchers and Papillon. See how that goes? And I don’t think Citizen Kane will ever be bested – the Golden Age for film was from about 1940 to 1960…with some echoes of it lasting into the 1980’s…but, its becoming more and more dreck. Though Interstellar is the best science fiction film ever made.